1. Field
The present invention relates generally to computing equipment and, more specifically, to management networks for data centers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data centers are often used to house and interconnect large collections of computing devices, like servers, databases, load balancers, and high-performance computing clusters. Often, the computing devices are interconnected with two different networks: 1) an in-band network for conveying the data upon which the computing devices operate, for example, content in webpages, queries and query responses, and data for high-performance computing; and 2) an out-of-band management network for conveying commands to the individual computing devices to manage their operation, e.g., for conveying information like sensor data indicative of the operation of the computing devices or for remote serial console sessions for server management.
Out-of-band management serves a number of purposes, depending on the context. Often, out-of-band management networks are used to manage security risk, by limiting the attack surface of a network that could be used to control the computing devices and segregating the in-band network that often receives data from the outside world. In some cases, out-of-band management networks are operative to control the computing devices even when the computing devices are turned off, for example, by accessing memory on computing devices that is persistent (like flash memory) to perform things like extensible firmware interface (e.g., BIOS or UEFI) updates, read values from registers indicative of configuration or state, and the like. Other examples of activities include booting a device that is been turned off, remote installation of operating systems, updates, setting hardware clock speeds, updating or querying firmware versions, and the like.